THE TREASURE HUNT FOR SYMBOLS OF CHRIST:

The family of six was active, curious, and anxious for a sacred temple experience in the varied bustle  of touring Europe and now France.  I shared with them that good temple training was to learn to find and understand symbols and that there were many symbols of Christ in the garden.  They wondered how to find them and wanted a key.  I suggested that they let the children in on the game and prayerfully invite them on a symbol treasure hunt.  

Then I told them this story:

Last week a couple came into the Paris Temple Visitor’s Center.  He was from Portugal and had joined the church two months ago.  They were both there to see the new temple and enjoy the gardens and spiritual peace. After orienting them to the model of the temple, I suggested that being taught by the Lord through symbols required that we learn this new language, the language of symbols. 

After talking about the value of the scriptures in gaining this linguistic experience, he asked what else he could do.  I suggested that they take a walk through the gardens looking for the twelve to fifteen symbols that some had identified in the garden. He asked for some examples.  I usually give a couple, but this time felt to invite him to be prayerful and return and report.  At first, he just thought I was joking.  He spoke very good English, so I suggested that one man’s symbol is another’s yawn. He got my point that finding them prayerfully gave personal value to them in a way that just following someone else’s research couldn’t do and so agreed to go practice the language of symbolism.

9 stairs leading from Christus to the temple & VC

After about an hour or so they returned displaying a long list on his phone.  His list was longer than mine, but he remained puzzled and insisted that I tell him what the number nine represented. It was my turn to look puzzled.  He laughed and explained that the number nine seemed to be the theme of the garden in that there were nine of so many things.  I asked for an example.  He pointed to the nine tall thin trees that form the first-row back drop to the Christus statue and then insisted that I tell him what nine symbolized.  Searching for sources for our now joint curiosity, I suggested that the Hebrew alphabet might be a source.

I had used it in an earlier Meridian article so I accessed it with my phone. https://latterdaysaintmag.com/seeking-the-lords-sacred-signature-on-our-lives/   I explained that each letter in the Hebrew alphabet is also a number since there are not separate characters.  Then each letter/number is a small representative of a symbol, the number nine is the Teth which is an image of “the womb”.  Its secondary meanings are “rebirth” and “final judgement.”

 I asked him if any of the things that he found with nine fit in symbolism.  His eyes, by that time were like wide saucers. “All of them fit!” He exclaimed.  “Christ is the final judge and the source of rebirth. The temple is indeed the source to come for rebirth!”  I agreed and began to encourage people to prayerfully go and find their own symbols in the garden.  It has become a favorite temple activity, especially for parents with restless children as they go on a treasure hunt together.

The "Twelve" in "Living Water"

It was to Adam that God first told to use symbols in teaching their children the plan of happiness including the ubiquity of intentional symbols that all bear record of Him.  We swim in a sea of symbols since "All things have been created to bear record of Him." (Moses 6:63)

From the tree of life, up the strait path...

Holding to the rod

One comes to the Christus

This Easter Week we have watched many a wide and searching eyed child out on a symbol hunt in our Garden.  They may not get to eat them like their easter egg and candy but they may be more understanding of the sacred symbols that will one day be part of their education in the divine university that is the temple!

His word if the rod

The rod not only leads to Him but also is the only security on the path.

He is the stone of the corner

He is the light we should hold up-12 for priesthood

Each light crowned with His crown

He stands radiating to all the garden

From Left to right looking past the Christus: VC, Temple, Patron Housing, worker housing

Walking forward towards the stairs with eyes closed causes one to rely on feelings instead of sight

From the baptismal fountain below, looking towards the VC and temple with the Christus left and the Tree of life to the right.

“Symbolism exists precisely for the purpose of conveying to the imagination what the intellect is not ready for.”

– Walter Hooper, ed., The Collected Letters of CS Lewis, Vol. II (San Francisco, 2004), 565

Too busy to post... much has happened including a brief visit to the Versailles Chateau where the history of France is unfolded in magnificent paintings and ceiling art.


Many a visitor to the Temple visitor's center come directly from the chateau to the temple center.  The contrast between the two chateau's is noteworthy.  Versailles is full of the history of men conquering men.  Furnishings, paintings and statuary portray everything from continual conquest to lust and debauchery.








One can't help but be overwhelmed with room after room of human history, conquest, and prideful indulgence.

The beauty is stunning, even elegant in showing what man can create.  We were, however, finally relieved to reach the end and re-enter our own time and reality.  We then stopped at a small Thai restaurant called The Thailandese.  The food was excellent and the service superb.  The walk was about 20 minutes from our apartment through city streets and traffic circles.


As we returned to our little apartment and prepared to re-enter the visitor's center, we had some empathy for those tourists who are overwhelmed with the elegance of the Versailles chateau and then enter the simplicity of the Lord's chateau.

The peaceful spirit of the temple visitor's center, the Christ centered symbols of the temple and gardens, the ancestral service and binding of the temple purpose, etc. combine to draw those sensitive to the Spirit.  A woman from the neighborhood stopped in yesterday.  She was of Chinese descent but re-located to France.  She informed me that her heritage and upbringing were products of China and hence atheist.  After giving her an overview of the center she asked to watch the video history of the temple.  She said that she walks by everyday and feels something she can't identify and so came to see all she could.  I alerted the sister missionaries who were watching conference in the Family History center, so that I could speak with another family.  An hour later I met the Chinese-French woman at the door.  She was smiling and searching through the literature rack to add things to her Book of Mormon given to her by the missionaries.  She was hungry for understanding. The family I had turned to is another story for another post to come; The treasure hunt for the Garden symbols!

Arrival and right to Work

 After ten hours in the same airplane seat, we were thrilled to be vertical and greeted by Elder and Sister Bourroux, the temple visitor center directors.  They are delightful, experienced in the Church as a former bishop and worked in the Computer field.  His sense of humor cannot be beat!!  The long ride encircled Paris and so didn't include any sites associated with the city.  We were both jet lagged and so had a hard time staying awake even though we had tried to eat and sleep on France time for the two days previous.

They took us to our apartment where we finally met Elder and Sister Campbell, who we replace.  They graciously moved out and let us take over their apartment.  Things were well prepared for us including some food, clean linens, etc.  They even put a new memory foam mattress topper on our bed for us.  The apartment has a kitchen, living room, office, and one bedroom.  We will be sufficiently comfortable here for 18 months.

From the living room  balcony looking northward

Kitchen Balcony also looking north

After unpacking and getting somewhat settled we were to be at the center for orientation.  A bit bleary eyed but anxious to learn we arrived and met some of the Sister missionaries that cycle through the center.

Friday we slept, or tried to.  Then we went shopping for some necessities.  The walk around Chesnay (pronounced shenay) was delightful and in the 60's.  Spring is in the air so trees and budding and flowering...the tulips and daffodils are even up.  We found most of what we wanted at Monoprix, a large store somewhat like Walmart or Target, but in the mall.  The Campbells also took us to the little health food store and neighborhood markets but we have yet to have time to explore them.










 Then Saturday morning came...it was to be our first big visitor's center adventure.  That morning the Rennes stake brought about 150 people to the temple with youth and children.  The visitor's center planned presentations for the 75 youth.  Elder Meunier...a very talented speaker and presenter...spoke to three different groups as they cycled through their baptism sessions.  We have also fallen in love with the Meunier's and look so forward to developing close ties with them and the Bourrouxs.  Unfortunately, the Meuniers leave in September.  I have been asked to take over the presentations as we work to make the center a tool for the wards and branches to bring their members to Christ and His temple.

While the youth and their parents and leaders were being both entertained and instructed, the sisters worked to entertain the 40 Primary children by helping them love Christ and His representations around the center gardens.  Sister Frogley fit right in and loved being with them...children are precious in any language.

As the families left, other guests came to explore the center...most from Paris and suburbs.  One woman came for her second visit.  I was asked to show her around and answer her questions.  She was from African and eastern European descent with ties to past nobility.

She asked as we stood in front of the Christus, "Will He come back?"  I assured her that He had promised to come back.  After listening and talking for almost an hour, she was about to reveal her true nature.  She almost erupted with, "No, He cannot! He brought nothing to this world!  He was but a poor fisherman!  He developed nothing, He invented nothing, He organized nothing....But we have invented, organized, ruled... He said that God is in us.  We have done all that because God is in us...I am god!!  I am god!! So He cannot return, you see?"  I said, "You have said that since God said that He is in us and you and your royal ancestry have done so much for mankind, then you are god?"  Said, "Yes, so He cannot come back!"  I said, "Well, I can see the logic of your story.  We all have a story, don't we?"  She agreed so I continued.  "Since He said that He was coming back, then, as often is the case, two stories contradict each other, so both cannot be true, or perhaps both are false."  She agreed so I went on... "What if we were to find life on a distant planet that also believed in Jesus Christ from our world?"  She agreed that would be solid evidence that He is real and is who He says He is. I suggested that back at the time of Christ, the American continent, or new world was as separated from the old world as planets are.  So what if the Biblical Christ were show up in the new world some time after His resurrection?  She agreed that would be amazing.  I then explained the Book of Mormon and then leafed through the pages and paintings with her.  We talked about some of the differing doctrines about what God is like, and what Christ taught and then showed her how everybody's stories, though contradictory can find some support in the Bible like drawing lines through a single point.  I then asked how many lines cold be drawn if we had a second point.  She agreed that only one line could pass through both points.  That I suggested is why the Book of Mormon is so important in determining what doctrines and stories are true, more than logical.
 She asked if the missionaries could visit her and teach her more....

I have been overwhelmed with the difference 50 years has made for the church in France.  We have met so many very well anchored and doctrinally sound saints that take initiative and sustain those new to the faith.  We are so grateful to be working with the Meunier's and the Bourroux's as well as others we will yet get to know in our new ward in Versailles....

March 18-27 MTC Week

We have finished our MTC training and wait to fly to Paris.  The MTC experience was filled with great insight, wonderful relationships, and good solid preparation for our assignment in the Visitor's Center.  

We started our training with a devotional on Video from Elder Bednar on the Attributes of Christ.  He use several powerful scriptural examples to show that His focus, even in the most extreme of circumstances, was on the welfare of others.  One example was His temptation experience as He went into the Deseret to be with God and then was "afterwards" tempted of satan with three episodes of "If you really are..." language to goad Him into self-focus.
Yet in each circumstance, whether with stones to bread, an angelic descent into the worshippers at the temple, or the wealth of the world, Christ was consistent in His response to glorify His Father.  Then when He should have been ready to accept the well-deserved ministering of angels to recover and prepare, He instead sent those angels to minister to John the Baptist newly in prison.  Even on the cross, after enduring Gethsemane, scourging, and the nails, His loving character was sufficiently deeply rooted that He was repeatedly concerned with others: Romans doing the cruxifixction, His mother, the thief suffering next to Him, etc.  We spent the week working to see everything through the character of Christ.

Jensens, Dellapiana, S. Eams, Kukua, Shakleford, Frogleys 

The young missionary trainers have been so well trained and served as very effective instruments in teaching us how to "Invite others to come to Christ."
Our district was marvelous and so much fun.  From such different walks of life we were thrown together to discuss, wonder, study, laugh, and learn together.  Sister Dellapiana, Sister Kakua from the Big Island, Sister Shakleford from Lehi, Elder and Sister Jensen from Hooper along with us made of our district.  We wended our way through writing lessons that would meet real needs first, with another couple from outside our district, Elder and Sister Klaas from St. George, and then our teacher, then another teacher, and finally a church member volunteer from Highland.  Each of us has needs to which we must learn to be sensitive and then through relationships, truth-thoughts from scripture or discourses, invitations to apply, promises concerning results, and finally a follow-through that enables and supports the individual we found ourselves bonding with each other as we sought to be divine instruments.  As companions we discussed, prayed, studied, and wrote together as we sought unity as "two by two" instruments.

The other couple from outside our district became our meal companions as well while we enjoyed living together climbing beyond our vastly different lives and backgrounds. As we each worked to bring each other closer to Christ we grew closer together.

THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST

 One of our favorite things was the pondering time with the large murals depicting missionary moments through out time.  We spent most of the Sabbath sitting and pondering all twelve murals.

Nephi, Not knowing before hand what he should do...Following the Spirit

Ester, Perhaps for just a time such as this were you born...

My priesthood quorum all stood on our last Sunday and shouted together..."Hurrah for Israel" as we left to go gather them

His question to each of us, "Do you love me more than these?"

 On our final days we went to the Salt Lake Visitor's Center to experience a tour as if we were the visitors.  The two sisters, one from Being China and the other from the Phillipines bore such a humble and spirit filled testimony with personal conversion experiences that moved us to tears.  They were so cute as they demonstrated the acoustics of the Tabernacle.

As we close this chapter I have to to give thanks for my companion from whom I never will have a transfer to a new one.  I love her...she completes me!!  We are off into the world to gather Israel before that last great and terrible day!!

 The Book of Mormon is our trumpet to call all that will hear and know the voice of the Master.  It furnishes answers to the great questions that occupy the thoughts of all men and women.